tag: superconductors

Some superconductors carry spin currents
A few years ago, researchers from the University of Cambridge showed that it was possible to create electron pairs in which the spins are aligned: up-up or down-down. The spin current can be carried by up-up and down-down pairs moving in opposite directions with a net charge current of zero, and the ability to create such a pure spin super-current is an... » read more

Hedgehog spin-vortex crystals
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has discovered a missing piece to enable novel superconductor devices--the hedgehog spin-vortex crystal phase.
Superconductors are devices that have zero electrical resistance, making them attractive for a range of applications. But superconductors must be cooled down to temperatures at or near absolute zero on ... » read more

Superconducting nanowire memory cell
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the State University of New York at Stony Brook developed a new nanoscale memory cell that provides stable memory at a smaller size than other proposed memory devices, and holds promise for successful integration with superconducting processors.
The device comprises two superconducting nan... » read more

Graphene adopts exotic electronic states
In a platform that may be used to explore avenues for quantum computing, MIT researchers have found that a flake of graphene, when brought in close proximity with two superconducting materials, can inherit some of those materials’ superconducting qualities.
They reminded that in normal conductive materials such as silver and copper, electric curren... » read more

Cooling hotspots
Engineers at Duke University and Intel developed a technology to cool hotspots in high-performance electronics. The new technology relies on a vapor chamber made of a super-hydrophobic floor with a sponge-like ceiling. When placed beneath operating electronics, moisture trapped in the ceiling vaporizes beneath emerging hotspots. The vapor escapes toward the floor, taking hea... » read more

Hot videos
The University of Minnesota has recorded videos that show how heat travels through materials, a move that could give researchers insight into the behavior of atoms and other structures.
It could also pave the way towards the development of more efficient materials for use in electronics and other applications.
In the lab, researchers used FEI’s transmission electron microsc... » read more

Superconducting memory
A group of scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Moscow State University developed a fundamentally new type of memory cell based on superconductors, which they believe will be able to work hundreds of times faster than memory devices commonly used today.
The basic memory cells are based on quantum effects in "sandwiches" of supercond... » read more

Observing antiferromagnetic order in ultracold atoms
Rice University researchers have simulated superconducting materials and made headway on a problem that’s vexed physicists for nearly three decades using ultracold atoms as a stand-in for electrons.
The research team, led by Rice, included researchers from Ohio State University, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, University of Cal... » read more

Simplified superconducting circuits
Computer chips with superconducting circuits, which means they have no electrical resistance, are said to be 50 to 100 times as energy-efficient as today’s technology. Superconducting chips are also said to have greater processing power: Superconducting circuits that use so-called Josephson junctions have been clocked at 770 gigahertz, or 500 times the spe... » read more

While diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers offer one attractive implementation of quantum qubits, many other systems have been proposed. In theory, at least, any system with clearly identifiable quantum states can serve the purpose. The challenge lies in finding a system in which those states can be manipulated and measured by external forces and can be fabricated in large enough numbers for practi... » read more